HCA: Hermit Crab Association

So I have two main things to cover here...
1. My tank is really struggling with humidity, and this morning and a few days ago I woke up to it being slightly below 70%... not so good. The heat of my tank is about 83 degrees, which (I think) is good.
2. I really want to do a moss pit, and i have heard that Sphagnum/peat moss is a good type to use. I have loads of the stuff growing on my trees and on the ground, and I was wondering if there was a particular way to harvest and clean it... I just ripped up a clump, and then let it sit in hot water to clean off the dirt and remove all the leaves and foreign plants.

If you have a screen lid for your tank and do not have it covered, you could try wrapping it in plastic wrap (not all the way, but some need about 70% minimum covered), and mist the tank with dechlorinated water once a day or as needed; that should help. Also, if you keep the substrate 'sand castle consistency', it should help with humidity too.

The moss should probably be fine, but you can bake it, on a low temperature, before you put it into the tank and moisten it with fresh dechlorinated water, if you want.

I use the Sphagnum organic moss that I got from The Home Depot for under $5. I have read a few topics on this that recommend NOT to use the peat moss. I don't know why you shouldn't, but I just got the organic moss. I didn't think of baking my moss to clean it, but that sounds like a good idea considering that I have found my hermit crabs eating the moss. I just put some moss in an old plastic flower pot, as well as in a corner of the tank. I mist it once a day and it keeps my humidity above 75%, it usually gets as high as 92%. So I do recommend the moss pit. Here is a link of the moss I use.

http://m.homedepot.com/p/Mosser-Lee-432 ... /202301542

I wish you the best of luck!

I have a glass lid tho, and it's held humidity pretty well for the last year and a half. I am now misting 4 times during the day only to wake up in the morning with the humidity being border-line 70%. On the subject of moss, how long/what temp would you recommend baking it? And i thought sphagnum and peat moss were the same thing...

The difference between the mosses is that peat moss looks similar to dirt, and has a soil like texture. The Sphagnum moss is more plant like, it looks like it is dried out when not misted.

Regular moss on the left, and peat moss on the right.

Ok, well I have the regular moss growing wild at my house. Should I use it?

Do you mean outside? If it is outside, I wouldn't use it. But that is just me, I would fear that there would be bugs in the moss, or pesticides. If you are growing in your home, I would go ahead and use it. I have read on HCA about people who do use the moss in their yard. That is just my opinion, but I would get some insight from someone with more experience with moss.

JoeyCoenobita wrote:Ok, well I have the regular moss growing wild at my house. Should I use it?

You can pour some boiling water on it and that'll kill any bugs. It's safe if you don't use any pesticides

We used pesticides around the border of our house over a year ago, but the moss grows about 2 yards away from the house, so i think it's safe